Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Hiking The Upper Blue Hills

“When I think of the wisest people I know, they share one defining trait: curiosity. They turn away from the minutiae of their lives-and focus on the world around them. They are motivated by the desire to explore the unfamiliar. They are drawn toward what they don't understand.”

― Dani Shapiro

Curiosity is the driving force of my photography. I'll see a photograph of a place and then I'll have to see it in real life. I'll become greatly fixated on it, read about it, research it and then attempt to find it.

Sometimes my explorations don't quite pan out to be what I'd thought but most of the time I'm completely blown away. Last month, I headed out to Southern Utah in search of the Blue Hills. I've been fascinated by geology since I was kid collecting rocks and that love continues. I headed out here in the pre-dawn light and this is the area in which I fell hiking and made a trip to the nearest hospital about 60 miles away. (Man that hurt and I'm still sporting some impressive bruises!) Notice I kept shooting...

There is such a high that I get when I'm standing in front of a great landscape (in this case crumpled up on the ground in front of it) that I'd only seen before in a book or magazine. That very moment when you are part of the magic, it's tangible and the elements are unforgettable is well...indescribable.

In those moments where I've been alone in the landscapes and I'm experiencing this rush of awe and wonderment, this is when I feel a complete connection and symbiotic relationship with this amazing planet we live on.

A relationship that is but a mere twinkle in history and I'm ok with that because I'm a photographer.

The Sierra Club

Climate Science

"My story isn't sweet and harmonious, like invented stories. It tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves"
__Hermann Hesse_